BEIRUT: Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria are in talks with their military allies in a US-led coalition on a promised exemption from US sanctions targeting the Syrian government, a senior Kurdish official said.
Washington says the sanctions, which took effect last week, mark the start of a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure on President Bashar Assad to stop the war in Syria and agree to a political solution.
Northeastern Syria is controlled by Kurdish-led militia who have helped the US-led coalition fight Islamic State, driving the jihadists out of swathes of Syrian territory.
Badran Jia Kurd, a vice president of the regional administration, said the sanctions would have an impact on his area, which trades with government-held Syria via local merchants and uses the Syrian pound, which has plunged in value.
“They will lead to an increase in prices to a very great degree and to weakness in trade activity with the Syrian interior, while on the other hand crossings to Iraq are closed, meaning the region was already living an economic siege,” Jia Kurd said.
“They told us the self-administration regions will be exempt from the Caesar sanctions but the mechanisms and means to achieve this exemption are being discussed with the international coalition.”
The sanctions are named after a Syrian military photographer who smuggled thousands of photos out of Syria showing mass killings, torture and other crimes.
A US State Department spokesperson said the United States had provided exemptions for humanitarian aid in all areas of Syria since the beginning of sanctions against the government and would remain in close coordination with its partners.
“We do not comment on the substance of private, diplomatic conversations,” the spokesperson wrote in emailed comments.
The coalition has said the sanctions do not impede humanitarian assistance or hinder “coalition stabilization activities in northeast Syria.”
The new sanctions allow for the freezing of assets of anyone dealing with Syria, regardless of nationality.
Kurdish-led authorities in Syria in talks over US sanctions exemption
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Kurdish-led authorities in Syria in talks over US sanctions exemption
- New sanctions targeting Syrian government began last week
- Kurdish-led militia control northeastern Syria
Iran offers concessions on nuclear program
- Atomic energy chief says it will dilute enriched uranium if US eases sanctions
TEHRAN: Iran offered on Monday to dilute its highly enriched uranium if the US lifts sanctions.
Mohammad Eslami, head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, did not specify whether this included all sanctions on Iran or only those imposed by the US.
The new move follows talks on the issue in Oman last week that both sides described as positive and constructive.
Diluting uranium means mixing it with blend material to reduce the enrichment level, so that the final product does not exceed a given enrichment threshold.
Before US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities in June last year, Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent, far exceeding the 3.67 percent limit allowed under the now-defunct nuclear agreement with world powers in 2015.
According to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Iran is the only state without nuclear weapons that is enriching uranium to 60 percent.
The whereabouts of more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium that Iran possessed before the war is also unknown. UN inspectors last recorded its location on June 10. Such a stockpile could allow Iran to build more than nine nuclear bombs if enrichment reached 90 percent.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians on Monday to resist foreign pressure.
“National power is less about missiles and aircraft and more about the will and resolve of the people,” Khamenei said. “Show it again and frustrate the enemy.”
Nevertheless, despite this defiance, Iran has signaled it could come to some kind of deal to dial back its nuclear program and avoid further conflict with Washington.
